The document discusses several causes and effects of deforestation and environmental degradation. It notes that over 12 million hectares of natural forest are lost annually, mainly due to selective logging and forest fires. Deforestation leads to soil erosion, climate change, species extinction and changes to local ecosystems. Some of the largest drivers of deforestation are logging, cattle ranching, agriculture and mining. Reducing consumption, recycling, and shifting to renewable energy and green transportation can help limit further environmental degradation.

2. Hundreds of millions of people in developing
countries depend on forests for their
livelihood. But over 12 million hectares of
natural forest are lost in the tropics every year,
either through the permanent destruction of
forests or through their degradation.

3.  The main cause of forest degradation is selective
logging of commercially valuable trees. This has
caused severe damage to many of the world's
forests, especially in Southeast Asia where the
density of commercially valuable timber species is
high. Other causes of degradation are forest fires,
excessive removal of non-timber forest products
and pollution

4. What is Deforestation?
Deforestation refers to the cutting,
clearing, and removal of rainforest or
related ecosystems into less bio-diverse
ecosystems such as pasture, cropland, or
plantations (Kricher, 1997).

5. What are the causes of
deforestation?
 I. Logging
 II. Mining
 III. Oil and gas extraction
 IV. Cattle ranching
 V. Agriculture: Cash crops
 VI. Local, National, and International factors:
development, land titles, government subsidies to attract
corporations into developing countries, trade agreements
(NAFTA, CAFTA), civil wars, debt, lack of resources, and
lack of law enforcement.

6. Largest rainforests worldwide
listed in descending order
 Amazon basin of South America
 Congo river basin of Central Africa
 S.E. Asia
 New Guinea
 Madagascar

7. Deforestation around the world:
 Between 1960 and 1990, most of the deforestation
occurred globally, with an increasing trend every
decade.
 Brazil has the highest annual rate of deforestation
today.
 Atlantic coast of Brazil has lost 90-95% of its
rainforest.
 Central America has 50% of its rainforests.
 South America has 70% of its rainforests.

8.  The Philippines have lost 90% of its rainforests!
 Madagascar has lost 95% of its rainforests!
 El Salvador has lost 70-85% of its rainforest due to
heavy bombing during the civil war 1984-1985.
 Sumatra has 15% of its rainforests left.
 Only 6% of Central Africa's forests are protected by
law.

9. Statistics on Global Rates of Rainforest
Destruction:
 2.4 acres (1 hectare) per second: equivalent to two U.S.
football fields
 149 acres (60 hectares) per minute
 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) per day: an area larger
than New York City
 78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year: an area
larger than Poland
 On average, 137 species become extinct everyday; or
50,000 each year!


10. Point to be Noted
 If the current rate of deforestation continues, the
world's rain forests will vanish within 100 years-
causing unknown effects on global climate and
eliminating the majority of plant and animal
species on the planet


11. What are the consequences of
deforestation?
 Extinctions (loss of biodiversity of microbes
(bacteria), plants, insects, animals, indigenous peoples,
etc. Habitat fragmentation. This disturbs the animals'
habitat and may force them to enter habitats which are
already occupied. This can pose many problems such as
territorial conflicts, homelessness (loss of habitat),
lack of food availability, migration disturbances, etc.

12.  Soil erosion occurs when trees and plants are removed;
the rain water washes the nutrients in the top soil
away. Changes in watershed geomorphology.
Desertification (dry, hot, arid conditions). Edge
effects can change microclimates (small climates)
which affect endemic species (native species which can
only live in specific environmental and habitat
conditions)
 Climate change (more carbon dioxide is released into
the atmosphere, thus increasing the effects of
global warming).Pollution (ground, water and air
pollution from oil extraction and mining
chemicals)
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13. Ways to stop deforestation
 1.Begin by hugging a tree. It’s that easy. This is the
quickest way to appreciate the important part it plays in
your life.
 2. And start planting trees. That’s the sum of the
domestic campaign so far. Soon, all the neighbors will be
carbon copying each other.
 3. Also stop printing and go paperless. Whether at
home or at work, many of us still have that nasty, lazy
habit of not learning to utilize computer files and folders
properly. So instead, we print. And, you know what;
many of us do this when we think others are not looking.
So, there you go. You know it’s wrong.

14. 4. When shopping, move towards buying recycled
products mainly. Most recycled items do not derive
from areas that have been cleared of natural and
rainforests
 5. When at home, recycle as much as possible. By
extension, you are continuing with your proactive
exercise in diverting the demand for clearing land.
 6. In the kitchen, cut down on your meat intake and
eat as many vegetarian meals as possible. It’s a best
practice and a healthy one on top of it too. Because it
remains problematic and time-consuming trying to
source meat products that are entirely devoid of being
harvested on land that once brimmed with trees.

15.  7. Speaking of meat, do not buy meat products sourced
from land where forests have been cleared. At this stage,
if you’re prepared to go the whole hog, if you will, you’ll need
to spend extra care and time perusing the product’s labels.
Also, you’re going to need to extend your knowledge on the
multinational companies that produce these pre-packaged
supermarket items.
 8. To get these things right, your shopping for recycled and
sustainable products and your meat products, vigorously
check the labels of each item you pick up. A much safer
alternative and time-saving effort entails simply buying
organic products instead. But avoid the multinationals
that have pretentiously jumped onto the organic bandwagon,
mainly to drive sales.

16.  9. Palm oil is a type of edible vegetable oil that is derived
from the palm fruit, grown on the African oil palm tree.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area the equivalent
size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to
make way for palm oil production. About 85% of all palm oil
globally produced and exported from Indonesia and
Malaysia; but most of the time not using sustainable
measures. Unless there’s concrete proof that it’s been
sustainably produced, do not buy palm oil at all.
 10. Do not use firewood to heat up your fireplaces. It
takes few hours to burn the firewood but takes years to grow
a single tree. Live in such a way that your activities cause
minimum impact on the environment.

17. Environmental degradation
 Environmental degradation is the deterioration of
the environment through depletion of resources such
as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat
destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is
defined as any change or disturbance to the environment
perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. As indicated by
the I=PAT equation, environmental impact (I) or degradation
is caused by the combination of an already very large and
increasing human population (P), continually
increasing economic growth or per capita affluence (A), and
the application of resource-depleting and polluting
technology

18. Water degradation
 One major component of environmental degradation is the
depletion of the resource of fresh water on Earth.
Approximately only 2.5% of all of the water on Earth is fresh
water, with the rest being salt water. 69% of fresh water is
frozen in ice caps located on Antarctica and Greenland, so
only 30% of the 2.5% of fresh water is available for
consumption.[5] Fresh water is an exceptionally important
resource, since life on Earth is ultimately dependent on it.
Water transports nutrients, minerals and chemicals within
the biosphere to all forms of life, sustains both plants and
animals, and moulds the surface of the Earth with
transportation and deposition of materials

19. Climate change and temperature
 Climate change affects the Earth's water supply in a large
number of ways. It is predicted that the mean global
temperature will rise in the coming years due to a
number of forces affecting the climate, the amount
of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) will rise, and both
of these will influence water
resources; evaporation depends strongly on temperature
and moisture availability, which can ultimately affect the
amount of water available to
replenish groundwater supplies

20. Population growth.
 The human population on Earth is expanding rapidly which
goes hand in hand with the degradation of the environment
at large measures. Humanity's appetite for needs is
disarranging the environment's natural equilibrium.
Production industries are venting smoke and discharging
chemicals that are polluting water resources. The smoke that
is emitted into the atmosphere holds detrimental gases such
as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. The high levels of
pollution in the atmosphere form layers that are eventually
absorbed into the atmosphere. Organic compounds such as
chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) have generated an unwanted
opening in the ozone layer, which emits higher levels of
ultraviolet radiation putting the globe at large threa

21. Agriculture
 Agriculture is dependent on available soil moisture,
which is directly affected by climate dynamics, with
precipitation being the input in this system and various
processes being the output, such as
evapotranspiration, surface runoff, drainage, and
percolation into groundwater. Changes in climate,
especially the changes in precipitation and
evapotranspiration predicted by climate models, will
directly affect soil moisture, surface runoff, and
groundwater recharge.

22. The Best Ways to Prevent
Environmental Degradation
 Preventing environmental degradation is a journey that
we should all take part in. Keeping our planet clean for
future generations is one of the most important things
we can do with our limited time here, so that our
children’s children can enjoy what we had. Erosion is an
important part of the Earth’s cycle, but those who don’t
care much about the environment itself have forgotten
that, too. Air, soil and water are our most precious
resources, and we simply cannot afford to lose them.
Without these three resources, we would parish.

23. Reduce Our Over All Consumption
of Resources
 Our natural resources that the planet gives us are
limited, but many people seem to forget that. If we
cut down our consumption by at least 70%, think of
how much we could save. This includes cutting
down trees to make paper and other materials that
we need, as well as fossil fuels, such as oil, to fuel
our cars and keep our industries moving.

24. Recycle What We Can, Whenever
We Can
 Recycling is the best way to slow down environmental
degradation, and is something that everyone should
partake in. If we want to save the planet and take on this
mission together, recycling the best way to fight
environmental degradation together.

25. Green Transportation
 If we all rode bikes instead of driving cars, we could
combat pollution quite easily. Cars and other
vehicles release pollution into the air, which only
causes the slow, deadly process of environment
degradation to speed up, and cut our time on this
planet even shorter.